Catch Up

Okay so it really has been too long since I blogged. We went on vacation the day after Sydney's
recital. We spent two wonderful weeks in Utah. It was so much fun to
see and spend time with family. We spent our first week with my
parents. On the Sunday before Memorial Day Tyler went to Temple Square
and watched The Music and Spoken Word. My brother Spencer plays the
bass the the Orchestra on Temple Square so we couldn't miss this opportunity to watch him play. It was amazing. I really think going to this will have to be a tradition
when we visit. The music was beautiful and so much better in person.
Then on memorial we planned a family bike ride with everyone, but were
rained out so we decided to do a family photo scavenger hunt. We
divided into groups and made lists for each of thing to take pictures
of. It was fun just to be together. The rest of the week we just hung
out withfam and played, until the weekend we went to Park City Tyler had some CE conference there and we had a hotel payed for so my fam cam up again and we all went swimming together and then on Saturday night my parents took all 3 of my little monkeys and Tyler and I spent a night just the two of us! This was the first time we have ever been just us overnight since we had kids, okay actually the 2nd Tyler's parent to the kids when I was prego
with Jack but I was throwing up the whole time, so I don't count that.
Anyway it was fun having sun together we went swimming in the pool and
actually swam. Anyway thanks Mom and Dada you guys are the best!!!
then we headed down to Hatch which really is a retreat itself. I love Hatch! It is so peacful and beautiful. I really need to take a picture of the view from Tyler's
parents kitchen window looking out at the pink cliffs. You really have
to see it to really appreciate it. We had lots of fun there riding on
the 4-wheeler, going on walks, having a cookout at 'the Hole'(thetraditional Barney fam cookout spot). But I think our favs were going treasure hunting with Grandpa (geo tracking), if you have not ever done this you should it was really fn
and the monkeys loved finding there own little treasure at the end of
each little hike. However Sydney's most favorite thing to do in Hatch
is work in the post office with Grandma. Ty's mom is theHatch postmaster and she is so sweet and lets Sydney go to work with her. sydney loves it and can spend hours upon hours with Grandma
there. She even mad Syd a special name tag while she 'worked' there
that said 'Hatch Post Office Helper'. She just loved it! I wish I would
have gotten a picture of her with her Grandma at the PO. Needless to
say we had a great time and now writing this makes me really miss ourfam. Hopefully our time will come when we can live close again.
Since being back we have been having lots of fun going to the pool, working
in the yard, going to the pool, having out own little school, going to
the pool. We are glad it's summer and are busy having fun!!

Dancin' Daisies

Sydney has been going to dance and gymnastic this past year. She has
enjoyed it so much and we loved being able to watch her perform. We are
amazed at her focus.
I have a short video clip but stopped filming when I couldn't zoom in
and see Syndey, but it's still cute.

Help

I am wanting to do a little summer school for my kids,just a couple days a week. There is so much info on line, with great lesson plans and activities, I am stuggling sifting though it all. Does anyone have a favorite site, or resource?

Syndey's Gymnastics Recital!

Sydney did such a great job! I was really impressed with all that she had learned! Although after trying to take some good pictures from a distance with our camera, I've decided we need a new camera.When we zoom the picture just turns out blurry.

Sydney's new haircut!

Hallelujah!

Today was my last day teaching seminary for this school year!! YEA!!! I am not afraid to admit
that I am proud of myself. It was difficult to get up so early every
morning. I told Tyler that I can now sleep in and get up at 6:30. Crazy
how my definition of sleeping in has changed! Anyway I thought I would
list all the things I have learned teaching seminary this year.

1.How to wake up to an
alarm.
Really I could never wake up to an alarm clock
before. Even the first few months Tyler would turn off the alarm and wake me up. It's funny how I could wake up in an instant to crying down the hall but not an alarm blasting in my room.
2.That Esther is my favorite story
in the Old Testament.
I actually don't ever think I really
new the whole story of Esther before this year. I just love her courage
and her willingness to sacrifice so much, ever her life, to save the
lives of others. By the way the movie 'One night withe the King' is the
story of Ester and does a great job of telling the story of Esther.
3.How to Study the
Scriptures.
I don't think I have ever been very good at
studying the scriptures, not just reading them which I wasn't very good
at either. But I really think having amanual with me has helped me so
much to pull life lessons out of the scriptures and helped me
understand things I don't think I could have on my own. I love the
institutemanual for the Old Testament and I think the institute manuals for any book of scripture would be great to have while reading.
4.The reality of the
Adversary.
This may seem strange, but I really have feltalot of inner opposition
this past year. I did not understand my struggles until just recently.
I recognized that Satan was working hard to pull me down. I have never
been so involved in studying the gospel and I have felt an obvious
increase in opposition. I do notbelieve this to be coincidence. I
consider it to be very important to recognize the source, Satan is the
father of lies he does not want us to succeed. So with that I know I
can have a new determination to conquer and overcome. That is the
beauty of the gospel and the importance of the Atonement of our beloved
Savior.
5. The Message of the gospel.
Over this year in seminary we kept referring back to the plan of salvation and
to the Scripture Master Moses 1:39," For behold, this is my work and my
glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." The
Lord's work and glory is bring us all to eternal life. What a beautiful
message and knowledge we have! What is so wonderful and amazing about
the gospel is that there is not one 1st place, in fact if we want 1st
place (celestial kingdom), we must help our Father in Heaven in his
work,which in essence means to help those around reach that same goal.
Isn't that wonderful! We don't want to be better than the next person,
we just want to help each other to all be the best. I love that! I get
excited just thinking about it!!

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have had,although I do not wish another year of teaching upon myself.j/k! My testimony has been strengthened, my love for the gospel and my savior has increased.

3 years old!!

Yesterday Layton turned 3. I can hardly believe my little boy is three. It's crazy how time flies! He of course wanted a spiderman cake so I attempted to draw a spider man figure on his cake. It turned out better than I thought it would. He also has had his eye on the piantas everytime we go to the store he says, "I'm going to have that at my birthday". I think he must have been meant to be a Cinco De Mayo baby. He loves pinata's. Our friends put together a Cinco De Mayo potluck and so of course they had a pinata there. He was so excited about it. And of course loved playing with his buddies on his birthday.
I love Layton and everything about him! He is so much fun and we feel so blessed to have him!